


Crystalline

by setissma



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 09:51:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13074366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/setissma/pseuds/setissma
Summary: An Avalanche coda.





	Crystalline

“At least it’s not at the Burrow this year,” Harry said. “There might actually be enough room.”

“There’s never enough room,” Hermione said. “And the Burrow has terrible wards, which means I don’t have to walk a mile in the cold after I Apparate.”

“You live in a drafty castle,” Harry said. “Quit complaining. Besides, you like Christmas, I don’t know what your problem is.”

“Look at it this way, it can’t possibly be worse than dinner with my parents,” Draco said.

“The one where no one said anything for two hours?” Hermione said. “Your mother asked me to pass the salt, that was better than the last time.”

“I still can’t believe you voluntarily interacted with Malfoys more than once,” Harry said. “Well, other than that one.”

“I’ve been voluntarily interacting with you all weekend,” Draco said. “Hermione’s not the only one who has to tolerate awful family.”

“Yes, but I’m not –“ Harry said, then stopped as if he’d thought better of it. “You know.”

“I don’t, by all means,” Draco said, but he was laughing.

“I was going to say, I’m not an evil former Death Eater,” Harry said. “But really, I might be coming out on top because I’ll talk to you at dinner. I’m very polite and welcoming.” He grinned. “At least comparatively.”

“I think I have to give you that one,” Draco said.

“Quit being weird and getting along,” Hermione said.

“Hey, we mostly get along these days,” Harry protested. “You ought to be grateful for our serious effort not to kill each other on your behalf.”

“Don’t bother,” Draco said. “She’s in a bad mood because she’s nervous.”

“I’m not –“ Hermione said.

“Look,” Draco said. “If anyone throws a fit about it, I’ll go back to Harry’s flat. I don’t want to ruin your Christmas.”

“If anyone throws a fit about it, all three of us are going back to my flat,” Harry said, firmly. “And Hermione’s Christmas would be more ruined if you weren’t there.”

He was occasionally and completely inexplicably protective of Draco. Hermione still wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“I appreciate the sentiment,” Draco said.

“You can appreciate the sentiment with coffee and those weird pastry things Fleur always makes,” Harry said.

They finally made it up the walkway and to the front door, which Harry held open.

“We’re here,” he yelled, toward the sitting room. Bill and Fleur’s house really was sort of excessively large.

Draco hung up her coat for her.

“I guess we might as well get it over with,” Hermione said.

“Quit being overly negative,” Harry said, with a grin. “It’s Christmas. Besides, Malfoy has leverage he doesn’t know about yet.”

“I do?” Draco said.

“You’ll see,” Harry said.

“Hermione, Harry! Merry –” Molly said, then stopped short in the doorway to the kitchen.

“Merry Christmas?” Draco said. Everyone in the living room turned to look.

Hermione suddenly saw a blur of blonde hair out of the corner of her eye. Victorie had come running downstairs.

“Professor Malfoy!” she said, and sort of flung herself at him for a hug.

“Er, hi,” Draco said, looking like he was trying very hard not to laugh. “It’s Christmas, you should call me Draco if you’d like.”

“Harry,” Molly said. “Did you really think –“

“Nope,” Harry said. “I’m not hearing one word about it, you can all stuff it or we’re leaving. He’s with us. I invited him, so if you’ve got a problem, you can take it up with me.”

“Actually, you can take it up with me and Fleur, since it’s our house and we invited him too,” Bill said, coming in from the kitchen.

“I owled too,” Ron said, getting up from where he’d been helping Victorie with a stocking.

“You _did_?” Hermione said. She glanced at Draco. He hadn’t said anything.

“Well, yeah,” Ron said. He looked sort of dubious, but he came over and hugged her. He finally held out a hand to Malfoy. “We’re all adults. We can attempt to be civil. And, er, Parvati said I had to. Plus you already came to the wedding, it’d be daft to get bent out of shape over Christmas.”

“I’m not an adult,” Victorie said. “Why’s everyone being weird?”

Draco paused, then carefully shook Ron’s hand. Neither of them looked particularly happy about it, but it was a much better start than she’d expected.

“No one’s being weird,” Bill said. “And no one’s going to say anything about Victorie’s favorite professor, are we?”

“Leverage,” Harry said, with a grin.

“Draco!” Fleur said, coming out of the kitchen to kiss both his cheeks.

“You have to let me say hello to your parents,” Draco told Victorie. “But I brought you a gift.”

“You did?” Victorie said, looking extremely happy. “Am I the only first year who gets a present from you?”

“You are kind of the only first year who’s related to him,” Harry pointed out.

“Well, technically –“ Draco said.

“Don’t start,” Harry said.

“Merry Christmas,” Parvati said, coming over too. She kissed Draco’s cheek. “I’m glad you’re here, we needed a token Slytherin.”

They seemed to get along largely on the basis of being the newest non-Weasley people at holidays. She’d made a point of inviting Draco to the wedding, and Ron seemed shockingly willing to go along with her on the general subject.

“No, you don’t,” Dominique said. “I’m going to be one next year. I already decided.”

“That’s not how the Hat works,” Victorie said. “I would know because I did it already.”

“Uncle Harry says you can choose,” Dominique said.

“You can,” Hermione said. “Well, sort of.”

“I don’t think she’s going to have to choose, she’s good at getting what she wants without asking,” Bill said, dryly. “You’d better keep an eye on her, Draco. She’s about three times as much trouble as her sister.”

“Bucking trend, this one,” Ron said, ruffling Dominique’s hair.

“Would you like some coffee?” Molly said, finally.

“I would, thank you,” Draco said.

“I need to borrow you for a minute, Draco,” Parvati said. “You know, Hermione present thing. Unavoidable.”

“Oh, well,” Hermione said, laughing. “In that case, you’d better go. I’ll keep your coffee warm.”

“Don’t forget my present just because Aunt Hermione needs one,” Victorie said, solemnly.

Draco followed Parvati onto the back deck, looking a little confused.

“Hermione’s got everything in her bag,” Harry said. “Don’t worry. She’s very reliable. Unlike me.”

“You’re lucky you only have to put up with one boy, Victorie,” Hermione said. “They’re useless.”

“Pretty much,” Ron said.

“Fred’s so outnumbered it isn’t funny,” Bill said. “But Angelina’s cousin has three boys or something, he might be having more fun this year.”

“He says they’re boring,” Dominique said.

“’Arry!” Gabrielle said, sticking her head around the corner from the kitchen. She had flour across one cheek. “Merry Christmas!”

“Do you need help with breakfast?” Harry said. “I can definitely come help with breakfast. You know what, I’ll do that, I’m just going to get in Hermione’s way with the presents.”

Hermione did her best not to laugh. Harry had gotten significantly less tongue-tied around Fleur over the years, but he was still hopeless about Gabrielle whenever she showed up for the holidays. Ron rolled his eyes.

“Yes, absolutely,” Hermione said. “Go help, Harry.”

“We’ll find you something to eat, dear,” Molly said. “I’m sure you can help somehow.”

“You should go hold Belle,” Bill said. “I’m sure Gabby will find you very fetching with Fleur’s overly blonde offspring. I’m still not convinced I had anything to do with her.”

“On it,” Harry said, and disappeared into the kitchen.

“Yeah, she does kind of look just like mum and Victorie,” Dominique said. “You’re lucky you have me for variety.”

“I’m lucky I have all four of you,” Bill said. “I’m also lucky Charlie says I’m welcome to come live with him in Romania when you and Dominique turn into proper teenagers.”

“Where is he, anyway?” Hermione said. “I thought you said he was coming.”

“He is, someone’s got to compete with Harry over Gabrielle,” Ron said. “But a dragon’s probably tried to eat someone, you know how it goes.”

“I’ll help you with putting out your presents,” Victorie said, pointedly. “Maybe that means we’ll get to open some someday.”

“It seems extremely likely you won’t get to open a single present all day,” Draco said, coming back in. He held the door for Parvati. “I’m freezing, where’s my coffee?”

“Probably with Harry in the kitchen,” Hermione said. “Want to go fall all over Gabrielle?”

“Why would I do that?” Draco said, looking happy. “I’ve got you.”

“You’re very charming,” Parvati said. “I might send Ron for finishing school with you and Hermione at Hogwarts.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ron said, grinning. “Too late, I already tricked you into marrying me.”

“It’s really a shame,” Parvati agreed, going to kiss him. “Draco wasn’t any help with the color on that thing for Hermione, we’d better drag Harry out there.”

“Oh, yes, absolutely, Potter’s really got an eye for that sort of thing,” Draco said, dryly. “I’m going to go get my coffee. I’ll send him back.”

“We might as well try,” Parvati said. “But I expect I’ll just have to give up and ask Hermione.”

Harry came back a minute later.

“The stupid baby likes Malfoy better,” he grumbled. “I gave her to him and she stopped crying.”

“Sorry, mate,” Bill said. “She likes Gabrielle too. It’s probably a blond thing.”

Harry was still grumbling when he went outside with them, and Parvati stuck her head back in the door. “It’s no use, just come tell me what color you want this jumper. I didn’t use a dyeing charm when I knit it, so you’ll have to choose.”

“Here, put the presents around the tree,” Hermione said, handing Victorie her bag.

“Apparently it’s not actually about a present,” Harry said. “Thanks for dragging me out of the kitchen for no good reason.”

“Well, it’s sort of a good reason,” Parvati said. “We were going to wait until after everyone’s opened things, but I asked Draco about finding a potions ingredient and he figured it out.” She laughed. “And Ron can’t even get mad at me, it’s in about forty potions. He’s just obnoxious.”

“You said it, not me,” Ron said. He was looking down at her with a look that Hermione could only barely place – he’d looked at Harry that way during the war, sometimes, with this fierce sort of pride.

“Figured what out?” Harry said.

“We’re kind of, well, having a baby,” Ron said.

“No, we’re really having a baby,” Parvati said, laughing. “There’s no ‘kind of’ involved.”

“That’s _brilliant_ ,” Harry said, his face lighting up, and he went to crush Ron in a hug.

“Don’t start crying,” Parvati said, when Hermione went to hug her. “I won’t be able to stop, I’m hopeless right now.”

“Yeah, really,” Ron said. “She cried over a pie crust earlier.”

“It didn’t come out the way I wanted,” Parvati said.

“We’re just going to _eat_ it,” Ron said. He stopped. “But I thought it looked great. Really.”

“Ignore him,” Hermione said, laughing. “We’re so happy for you.”

“Really, really happy,” Harry said, grinning. “The happiest. This is the best Christmas ever.”

“Mum doesn’t know yet,” Ron said. “Well, nobody does, except apparently Malfoy.” He nudged Parvati. “Can I tell you how indescribably glad that I am that the first person we told was apparently _Malfoy_?” 

“He guessed, and I wasn’t going to lie about it,” Parvati said. “Besides, we’d have told Hermione she could tell him.”

“Are you waiting?” Harry said. “Or doing it right before presents to ruin Victorie’s life by making everyone wait more?”

“I wanted to tell Padma before we told Ron’s entire family,” Parvati said. “But she’s in France with Penelope for Christmas, so we’ve got to wait until she gets back. But I told Ron we should go ahead and tell you.”

“I think mum and Fleur might be on to you, though,” Ron said.

“I’d probably be more convincing if I could stop ducking out to be sick every ten minutes,” Parvati agreed. “That’s what I had to ask Draco about. He said he’d send something to help.”

“How far along are you?” Hermione said.

“Two months or so,” Parvati said. “I’m due the last week of July.”

“Harry might have to share his birthday,” Ron said.

“Then this can be the best Christmas present _and_ the best birthday present,” Harry said.

“We should go in before you get too cold,” Hermione said. “Harry, practice looking bored about jumper colors.”

“You’d better come up with some fake good news, I’m too happy to hide it,” Harry said.

“I think Gabrielle broke up with what’s-his-face,” Ron said. “You can pretend to be happy about that.”

“I might be actually happy about that,” Harry said, thoughtfully.

“Careful, mum’s going to get ideas,” Ron said. “She’s nearly out of kids to marry off, and now Hermione’s taken too. I think she’s given up on Charlie, that just leaves you.”

“Speaking of, he just walked in,” Parvati said. “I can see through the window. Want to go say hi?”

“We’d better,” Ron said. “And we ought to get to presents before Victorie and Dominique stage a rebellion.”

It was, like always, loud and exhausting and full of an excessive amount of overly excited children, but Hermione was happier than she’d been in a long time. Everyone seemed to like Draco’s presents, even Molly, which Hermione was glad about given that he’d been getting up in the middle of the night for weeks to check the potions he’d made as gifts. 

She’d been a little worried about how well he’d adjust to so many people after years of just his parents, but he seemed perfectly content digging presents out from under the tree with Dominique and helping Fleur with dinner. Nearly everyone seemed genuinely happy that he’d come, especially the children. And Hermione had to admit that Bill maybe had a point about the appeal of men holding blonde babies.

“Having fun?” she said, when he’d finally escaped from Victorie and come to find her.

“A little,” he said, looking flushed and happy. “Do you think we can come back next year? Bill said they’d have it here again.”

“Did you just voluntarily agree to come to a _second_ Weasley Christmas?” Hermione teased.

“They’re outnumbered, it’s more of a Weasley spouse Christmas,” he said. “And I don’t mind Bill or Charlie.” He paused. “And yours is distracting Potter, so I haven’t had to interact with him in two hours.”

Hermione laughed. “I think he’s Parvati’s these days,” she said, pulling him in. “But you’re mine, so I’m happy with it. But there’s mistletoe, you’d better kiss me.”

“I suppose I might be obligated,” Draco agreed.

They got through dinner without any problems, and when they went to leave, Ron actually shook Draco’s hand again.

“Thanks for helping Parvati out with that whole jumper thing,” he said. “It’s good of you.”

“I’m happy to,” Draco said. “Merry Christmas, again.”

It was, however, good to get back to Harry’s very quiet flat, and she fell asleep on the couch for a few hours until she woke up to Harry and Draco trying to decide which bottle of whiskey to open. It had been a nice day, and it seemed like it might even be a nice evening.

“Why hasn’t anyone invented a spell for furniture assembly?” Harry said, a few hours later. He was glaring at a handful of screws. “I thought I’d finished this side, but now I have all these left over.”

“You could have just bought a functional bookshelf that didn’t require assembly,” Draco said. He was reading on the sofa.

“One, I didn’t buy it, it was a gift, which you know since you were there this morning,” Harry said. “Two, I completely agree. Maybe I can just pitch it out the window.”

“Well, my half is done,” Hermione said. “No extra screws. I can come help you with that bit.”

“There is not enough alcohol in this flat for this project,” Harry said. “There may not be enough alcohol in the entirety of London.”

“I don’t think getting drunk is going to improve your skills here,” Hermione said.

“It can’t possibly make them worse,” Draco said. “You can refill this if you’re opening another bottle.”

“I’ll finish off the merlot,” Hermione said. “Harry, how are these two pieces even together?”

“Dunno,” Harry said. “I definitely didn’t cave and use any spells, though. That would have been unsportsmanlike. And beneath me.” 

Hermione nearly missed the owl at the window because she was trying to neutralize Harry’s glue spell.

“That took long enough,” Draco said. He gave absolutely no signs of getting up from the sofa. “Potter, you can get that too.”

“Huh,” Harry said. “Is that –“

“Yes,” Draco said. It wasn’t a very large parcel. Harry took it from the owl.

“You could come get it,” he said.

“It’s Hermione’s,” Draco said. “She could come get it.”

Harry tossed it to Draco, who caught it without really looking up from the book. Occasionally, she hated Quidditch players.

“Catch,” Draco said, throwing it to her. She caught it. Barely. “Merry Christmas.”

“Er,” Harry said. “I don’t think you can just…”

“I can and I did,” Draco said.

“Stop doing the thing where you have half a conversation and I can’t follow it,” Hermione said.

Harry was hopeless at pretending to be subtle, so when he came to look over her shoulder, she laughed.

“What, was this some sort of joint endeavor?” she said. “That’s terrifying. I don’t think I should open it.”

“Not exactly,” Harry said.

“That’s a worse response than saying yes,” Hermione said. She ripped open the wrapping paper. It was definitely a jewelry box. She opened it.

“Oh,” Harry said. He sounded almost thoughtful. “You were right, that diamond is bloody enormous.”

“There’s a bigger one in the vault,” Draco said. “There’s also a smaller one. And about five sapphires. I seem to remember a black diamond, but that was just gaudy. You can choose a different one if you’d like, Hermione.”

“Draco,” she said, slowly.

“Yes?” he said.

“Is this, you know,” she said.

“Yes,” he said.

“Did you just give me an engagement ring for Christmas?”

“I would have done it last night, but apparently resizing a magical ring is some sort of excessive challenge that can’t be accomplished in a timely fashion,” Draco said. He was, apparently, still reading.

“But –“ Hermione said.

“For the record, I’m taking notes on how not to do this,” Harry said.

“Notes that you’re never going to use because you’re never going to marry anyone,” Draco said, mildly. “And I already asked you. You said, and I quote, ‘Brilliant!’”

“You asked _Harry_?” Hermione said.

Draco finally looked up. He looked, if anything, slightly irritated. “I asked your father, who said a lot of things that I didn’t entirely understand about feminism, although he seemed all right with the idea. But I thought I ought to make sure Harry was fine with it, since he’s your family. Or something.”

“Malfoy,” she said, pointedly.

“You’re not going to be able to use that nickname much longer, it’s going to get confusing,” Draco said.

“Who says I’m taking your last name?” Hermione said.

“Me,” Harry said. “Let’s all take a moment to cherish the look on Lucius’ face when he finds out.”

“Actually, who says I’m marrying you?” Hermione said.

“Also me,” Harry said. “I spent all year learning to tolerate him and now I nearly think he’s okay, you have to keep him.”

“Shut up,” Hermione said.

“I’m just going to, ah,” Harry said, making a vague gesture. “Wine.”

“Do you not want to?” Draco said. Hermione recognized it as his overly casual voice, the one that he used when he didn’t want to let on that he was actually invested in any part of the proceedings.

“How about you actually ask me?” Hermione said, coming to sit on the couch. She handed him the box. He looked at it.

“I didn’t think you’d like that,” Draco said, finally. “You’re always going on about how no one makes unilateral decisions in relationships.”

Hermione watched him for a moment. She realized he hadn’t looked particularly relaxed in days. She’d just chalked it up to nerves over Christmas.

“Are you not asking because you’re worried about the answer?” she said.

“No,” he said. “All right, possibly. I want –“ He paused. “I’m not going to say that, I don’t want to influence your decision.”

Hermione tried not to laugh, but she couldn’t help it. “I don’t think you can pressure me into getting married by admitting you want to get married,” she said. “Because I’m going to assume that you want to get married since you gave me an engagement ring. I think it’s a reasonable supposition on my part.”

“Still,” Draco said.

“You’re hopeless,” Hermione said. She took the box back, then opened it.

“You could put it on,” Draco said. “I wouldn’t mind. In case you wanted time to decide. You should probably take some time to decide. Do you want time to decide?”

“Well, if you’re not going to ask, I’ll do it,” she said, turning the box toward him. “Will you marry me?”

“Oh,” Draco said. He suddenly looked very relieved. “Of course I will. That’s why I gave you an engagement ring.”

“Your turn to ask,” she said, handing him the box. “Since I wouldn’t want you to have concerns about unilateral decisions.”

“Do you want to get married?” he said, finally. Somehow, he still looked a little nervous.

“Very much, yes,” Hermione said, leaning in to kiss him. “Although I’m going to yell at you later for thinking I’d say no.”

“I told him that,” Harry said. “Possibly upwards of ten times.”

“As long as you’re yelling at me and we’re still getting married,” Draco said.

“I suppose that might be arranged,” Hermione said, kissing him again. “Although you’re about to run out of options on the Christmas present front, since you’ve given me engagement jewelry twice.”

“I thought maybe next year I’d make it a wedding ring,” Draco said. “And then I’m good from there out because I can just give you anniversary presents.”

“That’s boring,” Harry said.

“Did you really ask him first?” Hermione said.

“I thought I should make sure it wasn’t a terrible idea,” Draco said. “In retrospect, I’m not actually sure why I asked him, separating good ideas from terrible ones isn’t really his strong suit.”

“For the record, I at least thought there’d be…” Harry refilled her wine glass. “Dinner. Roses. Weird Malfoy things.”

“She hates roses, I’m the one who likes those,” Draco said. “Which is why there are peonies in the guest room.”

“Oh, that’s what you were doing this afternoon,” Harry said. “But how did that take an hour, exactly? It’s flowers.”

“It might be slightly more accurate to say that there is an abundance of peonies in the guest room,” Draco said. “Possibly a surfeit.”

“You could probably ask again in there,” Hermione said. “You know, properly, like a normal human being, since that’s where the flowers are. I’ll give you a do over.”

“If you promise to say yes again,” Draco said. He suddenly looked happy. “You could say yes repeatedly, I wouldn’t mind.”

“You usually don’t,” Hermione said, amused.

“Oh, no,” Harry said. “No loud engaged sex one wall over from me.”

“Too bad,” Draco said. “You agreed to those terms last February.”

“Did you somehow ask Harry about marrying me in February?” Hermione said.

“No, I asked –“ Draco said.

“You don’t want to answer that, mate,” Harry said. “Seriously. Trust me.”

“I asked in November when he came up for the weekend,” Draco said. “I asked last winter if he cared what we did in the guest room.”

“If –“ Hermione paused. “Draco, did you actually ask him permission –“

“No,” Harry interrupted. “We had no such conversation, it’s none of my business, I would have been horrified, I’m still horrified, let’s not talk about it.”

“Yes?” Draco said. “I didn’t want to presume. We aren’t married. It seemed sort of unlikely that he’d care, admittedly, but it seemed impolite not to check.”

“What, exactly, were you planning on doing if he said no?” Hermione said.

“Not having sex in the guest room?” Draco said. “Which I’m really nominating that we rename as the ‘guests named Hermione and Draco’ room since no one else ever stays in it.”

“You’re the one who decided to marry him,” Harry said. “Although you haven’t put the ring on yet, there’s still time. You can save yourself.”

“I can’t,” Hermione said, with a sigh. She slid the ring on. It did sort of fit perfectly, and it didn’t look quite so oversized once it was actually on. “I love him. It’s awful, I don’t know what I’m going to do about it.”

“Marry me, maybe,” Draco said.

“Yes,” Hermione said, laughing. “Yes, I will.”


End file.
